Thursday, 31 January 2013

This is an erotic song which I have previously passed over,
but which has a contemporary topicality at a time when the top-selling novel,
“Fifty Shades of Grey” also has a much discussed spanking scene. I don’t
imagine though that the setting of the couple’s encounter in E. L. James’ book
is a Chapel of Rest, with the lady’s husband’s corpse alongside. Brassens is dealing once again with his repeated theme of death and his determination not to let his
own eventual death or any actual death suck the life out from the several decades
of living that are granted us.One
weapon in his counter attack is the free enjoyment of human sexuality, which is illustrated in
this song. Here it is presented sometimes openly but more often conveyed
through teasing innuendo and suggestion so that the song is as sensual as the audience makes it. The censor made the right (or wrong) interpretation and the song was banned. It is good to hear the audience laughter on this recording and to know Brassens' song was generally accepted in its true spirit

(3)ce que c'est tout de même que de nous !" – In
her cups, the widow makes a declamation about human mortality. This is a
famous expression used by Archbishop Bossuet (1627- 1704) in a funeral
oration, (Bossuet is regarded as one of
the great orators of all time).
Bossuet’s enigmatic statement made beside a dead body is seen to express
how little our lives have to offer.
Brassens’ use would appear to be ironic, coming from a tipsy young lady
intent on making love – although, admittedly, she, like Bossuet was speaking
the words beside a dead body.

(4)Un tablier d'
sapeur – In the 19th century, firemen in some parts of France wore black
leather aprons for protection. However
the expression has a vulgar usage for female pubic hair.

Tuesday, 22 January 2013

Brassens
satirises the conventional teaching of history, which confines itself largely
to the amoral listing of successive wars and attributes national glory to the
slaughter.In this poem a new military recruit
enthusiastically lists his favourite wars, putting at the top the 1914- 1918 War, which was, of course, the greatest human slaughterhouse in history.

TRANSLATION NOTES

1)La guerre de
14-18.- It is unusual in English to
refer to the First World War in this way, but Flanders and Swann keep it in
their copy of Brassens' song.See below.

2)Homère –
Homer the great poet of Ancient Greece wrote the Illiad telling the story of
the last year of the Trojan War.He
lived around 750- 650 BC and so did not have as wide a choice of wars as the
young man in Brassens’ poem.

3)La Guerre de soixante-dix.In the War
of 1870, France suffered total defeat, outnumbered by the armies of Prussia and
Germany.There were however some
glorious moments for the French such as the charge of the Le Premier Cuirassier
at the battle of Reichshoffen.

4)Les
guerriers de Sparte plantaient pas leurs épées dans l'eau = The expression« donner des coups ‘épée dans
l’eau » means to exert oneself in order to achieve nothing.The Spartan warriors did the opposite and used their swords
to very bloody effect.

5)Les
grognards de Bonaparte – This was the name given to the soldiers of Napoleon’s
Vieille Garde, the utmost elite section of Napoleon’s elite Imperial Guard.

6)Celle de l'an quarante-Here
Brassens is dealing with the bloody civil war of the French Revolution.In this poem of dates,Brassens had reached the most famous date of
all- 1789.However, he preferred instead
to use “l’an quarante” , because the revolutionaries had a joke about the 40th
year of reign of Louis XVI.As the king
was 38 when they chopped his head off, the reason for this choice of number is
obscure.

8)Guerres… Qui n'osent pas dire leur nom -.“La guerre sans nom” was the term
used by critics of the war to describe the conflict between Algerian
nationalists and French forces between 1954 and 1962.Here Brassens was touching on a contemporary
issue which was very controversial and was debated with great passion, some of
which, Brassens was inevitably drawing ontohimself.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A British version of Brassens' song made by Michael Flanders, who was a famous humourist and performer on stage and TV

Released in the 1960s as a single with “20 Tons of TNT”- it was a very powerful anti-war song.

The War of 14-18

War has had its
apologians,
Ever since history began,
From the times of the Greeks and Trojans, when they sang of arms and the man,
But if you asked me to name the best, Sir,
I'd tell you the one I mean,
Head and shoulders above the rest, Sir, was the War of 14-18,
Head and shoulders above the rest, Sir, stands the War of 14-18.

There were the wars against all those Louis,
There were Caesar's wars in Gaul,
There was Britain's war in Suez, which wasn't a war at all,
There was the war of the Spanish succession,
Many other wars in between,
But they none of them made an impression like the war of 14-18,
They didn't make the same impression as the war of 14-18.

The war of American independence,
That was enjoyable, by and large,
Watching England's free descendants busy defeating German “Garge”,(1)
But the Boer war was a poor war, And I'm still inclined to lean,
Though Sir, it possibly isn't your war like the war of 14-18,
Though, it probably isn't your war, Sir, the war of 14-18.

There are certainly plenty of wars to choose from, you pick whichever one you
please,
Like the one we've had all the news from liberating the Vietnamese,
Or those wars for God and country, be it Korean or Philippine,
Sir, if you'll pardon my effrontery, give me the war of 14-18,
If you'll pardon my effrontery, Sir, the war of 14-18,

Every war has its own attraction from total war to border raid,
Call it rebellion, police action,
War of containment or crusade,
I don't underrate the late war we see so often on the screen,
But that wasn't the really great war like the war of 14-18,
No, the late war wasn't the great war like the war of 14-18.

No doubt Mars, among his chattels, has got some really splendid war,
Full of bigger and bloodier battles that we've ever seen before,
But until that time comes, Sir, when that greater war comes on the scene,
The one that I on the whole prefer, Sir, is the war of 14-18,
Yes, the one that I still prefer, Sir, is the war of 14-18.

TRANSLATION NOTE

1)

German “Garge” -There are questions posted on the Internet
about the meaning of this phrase. Michael
Flanders has distorted the name of the King of England, at the time of the
American war of Independence - George III.He does this no doubt to make the rhyme with “large”.

Although in our
modern histories, we like to depict this war as Americans fighting British
imperialists, it was a war between British colonialist settlers in America
against their home government in England, led by a German King: George III from
the House of Hanover.